At Home with John and Debbie

Over the years, I’ve flown a few flags over festival campsites. It adds to the festival vibe.
It helps you and others navigate through the sea of tents. It makes your campsite feel more homely.

I thought people might benefit from what I’ve learned about the practicalities.

The flag

You can of course buy national flags in shops. I’m going to assume you want to create your own more personal design. It may seem like common sense that you should buy a second hand bedsheet from a charity shop, or fabric by the metre. That approach does work, but I have found that sheets aren’t as common or as cheap as you might expect in charity shops.

Also, bedsheet fabric is absorbent, which means a heavy flag if it rains. Fabric by the metre might be a better bet, especially if you’re good with a sewing machine.

However, I’ve learned that buying a plain ready made flag is fairly cheap, and saves a lot of trouble. You know it’s going to be strong, light fabric that doesn’t soak up too much water. It comes ready hemmed. It will have eyelets for rigging.

One source is: http://www.skyblueleisure.co.uk/ (of course there are other suppliers)

The people who sell flags also sell flag bungees - like strong hairbands with a ball incorporated. These are useful for rigging (see below).

Designing and decorating the flag

I like designing things on computers, but you don’t have to. Computers are definitely the best way to get professional looking lettering. One great way to transfer a computer design to the flag is to borrow a projector. Hang the flag on a wall, project your design onto it, and trace it with a fine pen.

You can mark the flag with permanent marker pens, with fabric paint, and with spray paint.

Spray paint is ideal for large flat areas of colours. Mask off the areas you don’t want coloured with masking tape and newspaper. Spray from a distance so that the droplets of paint aren’t propelled against the fabric, but fall on gently. Allow plenty of time for the spray paint to dry.

Fabric paint is good for smaller areas of colour, and allows sophisticated paint techniques for clever arty types.

Marker pens are good for drawing lines, and for colouring in even smaller areas. If you’re patient and systematic, you can colour quite large areas with marker pens - for example, filling in a piece of text.

The pole

Some people improvise tent poles from carbon fibre tent poles (such as you’d find in a modern dome tent). This is pretty hopeless: they’re made to be whippy.

You can buy telescopic fibreglass tent poles. I prefer something bigger and more rigid. My solution is traditional aluminium tent poles. You can buy these from any camping shop, but to get the length you need takes more than one, and some effort.

Each pole comes as set of sections. The bottom section ends in a spike for putting in the ground. The remaining sections all have a narrow part at the bottom, to slide into the next section. The top section may have a plastic plug to prevent rain getting in. Some sets are held together by an internal spring.

To extend the pole, you need a second set. You have to discard the bottom piece, because a second spike is no use. This may involve removing the spring from the inside. Now you can slip the second set into the top part of the first set. You can fit several sets together in this way. Find the balance of how much metal you’re willing to carry, against height you want. Mine is 17 feet (5.2 metres) tall.

Jubilee clips and cable ties

These are two great ways of attaching things to the pole.

A jubilee clip (also known as a hose clip) is a metal device for securing hoses onto pipes. You’ll find plenty under the bonnet of a car or inside a washing machine (I’m not suggesting you take one of these). They are tightened with a screwdriver, so you get a really strong, secure fit. Combined with epoxy glue this is the best way to attach things to the pole when it needs to be really strong.

Cable ties, or zip ties, are plastic devices for bundling things together. They are engineered so that they can be pulled tight, but not loose. You’ll see these in cars too - often securing wiring to the bodywork. Similarly, they’re found inside computers, and sometimes in consumer packaging.

Cable ties are good for a less permanent, lighter weight fixing. To prevent sliding up and down the pole, it’s good to wrap the pole with a piece of gaffer tape, and fix the cable tie around it. One especially useful type of cable tie is the kind with a loop moulded into it. This lets you attach a cable tie to the pole, then attach other things to the tie.

Supporting the pole

The pole needs three or more guy lines to hold it upright. Use a jubilee clip to provide a good solid point about a third of the way up the pole, where you can attach the guy lines. You can peg and tighten these just like tent guy lines. At festivals, it’s a good idea to attach something light and visible to the lines, to prevent people from blundering into them.

The guy line attachment in the picture is nowhere near as neat as it could be — but it does the job.

Rigging the flag

The simplest way to rig the flag is not the best one: use two cable ties through the eyelets in the flag, to attach it directly to the pole.

A better way is to copy the way the pros do it, by having the flag on some string so you can run it up and down the pole. The fancy flag term for this string is ‘halyard’.

Attach a keyring to the top of the pole using a cable tie. Run a long piece of string through the keyring.

Use more cable ties to secure a cleat near the bottom of the pole, where you’ll be able to reach it. You can improvise a cleat from stuff lying around the house, or buy one. It’s just something you can wrap the loose ends of the halyard around.

Now you can raise the pole, without yet flying a flag.

(You need to know two knots for this: the butterfly and the lark’s head. Google is your friend.)

Position the halyard in the ‘lowered’ position. That is, one end is hanging near the cleat, and you know that by pulling on it, the other end will rise. Make a small butterfly knot in the part of the halyard that will rise, and another below. These should line up with the eyelets in the flag. Attach flag bungees to the eyelets using lark’s head knots, and push the balls through the butterfly knots. You may need to adjust the butterfly knots so that they are nice and tight around the balls.

Now you can pull the halyard to hoist the flag. When it’s at the top of the pole, wrap it around the cleat to secure it in place.

I think this looks a lot nicer than the simpler option. It also lets you raise and lower your flag whenever you like. If I’m near the flag at dusk, I like to lower it, attach an LED light badge, and raise it again. The flashing light will guide me home later.

Here’s the raised flag - indoors on a shortened pole, and outside in the breeze where it belongs.